MetroWest feels pinch of local aid cuts

Saturday

Jul 31, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2010 at 8:55 PM

An analysis of state budget cuts released Friday says MetroWest towns are feeling the effects of reductions that have curtailed most of the services the government provides, including education, health care, public safety, environmental protection and safety net programs.

From staff reports

An analysis of state budget cuts released Friday says MetroWest towns are feeling the effects of reductions that have curtailed most of the services the government provides, including education, health care, public safety, environmental protection and safety net programs.

Statewide, unrestricted local aid is down by 34 percent, or $453.4 million, in inflation-adjusted dollars. Chapter 70 education aid has been cut by 6.5 percent, or $271 million, under a conservative estimate.

The report, by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, identifies more than $3 billion in state budget cuts since the current fiscal crisis began as well as where the cuts have been and what programs have seen some of the most significant cuts.

Interviews by massbudget.org with many officials in MetroWest and statewide pointed out how some of the cuts have hit home.

In the report, Natick Selectman Josh Ostroff said that in his town, "We have reduced head counts in public works, police and fire, public schools and many town departments in the past few years as state aid has declined.

"That's had a real impact in school offerings such as languages, guidance and class sizes, wait times for public works, proper maintenance of roads and buildings, adequate levels of police and fire personnel, services to seniors, and our overall ability to manage today's workload, let alone prepare for tomorrow."

Jim Malloy, Westborough's town manager, pointed out the conflict between cuts in aid to cities and towns and the increases in mandated spending.

"Over the past three years, state aid for Westborough is down approximately $200,000 while the net minimum contribution for schools is up by approximately $600,000, which equates to an $800,000 increase in local costs between FY 2009 and FY 2011," Malloy told the Budget and Policy Center. "This problem is exacerbated by other mandated spending, such as special education costs, which have driven our school budget up by approximately $2.2 million between FY09 and FY11 while the state has not met its commitment on special education funding."

Malloy said that, during that period, Westborough has seen a drop in local receipts of about $200,000.

Beverly Hugo, vice chairwoman of the Framingham School Committee, said her district has to find a way to pay for close to $22 million in unfunded and underfunded state and federal mandates, such as requirements for in-district special education students and special education students who are sent out of district for services; English language learning education; and transportation costs including private, parochial and out-of-district special needs students.

"The combination of increasing unfunded and underfunded mandates, the rising costs of education, and decreasing tax dollars is strangling our public education resources to the point where it is beginning to be difficult to deliver a high-quality education to all children," Hugo said. "Our public schools are struggling, and we are slowly sinking to becoming irresponsible stewards of our children in their education pursuits."

Shirley Lundberg, chairwoman of the Northborough-Southborough Regional School Committee, said cuts in state aid for special education regional transportation do not cut the district's actual expenses for special education or transportation.

"In both cases those services are mandated whether or not the state maintains its funding for them," Lundberg told massbudget.org. "Instead, teaching and administration positions have been cut, and class sizes have risen.

"The so-called 'non-core' content classes and elective programs are at risk in many districts as they struggle to balance their budgets," and a reduced staff of administrators have to take on more work while "routinely turning back raises."

Lundberg also said user fees are going up, which she thinks is "the antithesis of a publicly provided education."

In Marlborough, School Committee member Katie Robey, who is also president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said federal stimulus money has allowed school districts to avoid many of the painful cuts that may become more likely in the future for some cities and towns.

"We are particularly concerned about the use of federal stimulus funds to backfill cuts in Chapter 70 and other areas of the education budget and its impact on the 2013 state budget when those funds are no longer available," she said.

Officials and advocates around the state say the cuts have affected the delivery of local services such as education and public safety.

"Cities and towns have been hammered by the deepest local aid cuts in state history, causing cutbacks in vital community services from public safety to education, forcing thousands of layoffs of teachers, police officers, firefighters, librarians and other key workers, and increasing local reliance on the regressive property tax," said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "This record reduction in municipal and education aid has triggered widespread fiscal distress at the local level and threatens the essential services that our economy needs to recover from the recession."

Across the state, funds for public colleges and universities have been cut from $1.09 billion in FY 2009 to $954.1 million in FY 2011, a reduction of $171.2 million - or 15 percent - adjusted for inflation. The UMass system has been cut $78 million, or 15.1 percent; community colleges - including Framingham State College and Massachusetts Bay Community College - have been cut $36.3 million, or 14.4 percent; and state colleges have been cut $33.1 million, or 14.4 percent, according to the massbudget.org report.

Martin T. Meehan, a former congressman who is now the UMass-Lowell chancellor, said students are paying more today because the state has shifted the burden to them.

"This fiscal year, the state appropriation for UMass-Lowell will cover only 24 percent of our costs," he said. "If we want the innovation economy to grow in Massachusetts, we have to keep public higher education affordable, because it's not our private universities that provide this high-skilled workforce, it's the 85 percent of UMass graduates who stay in the state."

The report also looked at state cuts in health care, including a cut in adult dental benefits for MassHealth members that eliminates non-emergency services affecting close to 700,000 adults, including approximately 130,000 elders.

Dentists across the state began informing MassHealth patients that starting July 1, adult dental services no longer cover fillings, dentures and other restorative services, leaving coverage only for emergency and preventative services.

Cuts to child care subsidies for income-eligible families represents a $67.2 million, or 16 percent, cut in real dollars over three years. This translates to a loss of up to 3,600 available child care subsidy slots in FY 2010 and another 5,600 in FY 2011, the report says.

Elder home care programs have been cut by $21.7 million over the last three fiscal years, a 14 percent cut when adjusted for inflation that results in approximately 2,500 fewer frail elders receiving community-based long-term care services that allow them to stay in their homes. There are now more than 2,700 elders each month on a waiting list for home care, the policy center report says.

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